Traktor Chelyabinsk

Traktor Chelyabinsk
City	Chelyabinsk
League	KHL 2008–present Russian Superleague 1996–1999, 2006–2008 Vysshaya Liga 1999–2006 IHL 1992–1996 Soviet League Class A 1948–1965, 1968–1992 Soviet League Class A2 1965–1968
Conference	Eastern
Division	Kharlamov
Founded	1947
Home arena	Traktor Ice Arena (capacity: 7,500)
Colours
General manager	Ivan Savin
Head coach	Benoit Groulx
Captain	Sergey Kalinin
Affiliates	Chelmet Chelyabinsk (VHL) Belye Medvedi (MHL)
Website	hctraktor.org
Franchise history
1948–1953	Dzerzhinets
1954–58	Avangard
1958–present	Traktor Chelyabinsk
Current season

Traktor Chelyabinsk, also known as Traktor, or HC Traktor Chelyabinsk, (Russian: ХК Трактор Челябинск; Трактор) is a professional ice hockey team based in Chelyabinsk, Russia. They are members of the Kharlamov Division of the Eastern Conference of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). From 1967 to 2009 the team played their home games at the Yunost Sport Palace. In 2009 the team moved to the arena now called Traktor Ice Arena named after Valery Belousov, their present home arena in Chelyabinsk.

Founded in 1947 as a team of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, Traktor have played for the Soviet and Russian championships since 1948. In 1948-1953 the team was called Dzerzhinets and Avangard in 1954 - 1958. The current name was adopted starting with the 1958–59 season.^[1]

Traktor played its first game in the top league on December 12, 1948 against CDKA Moscow. Viktor Shuvalov, a future star of Moscow clubs VVS and CSKA, led the team in scores during its first season in the championship. In 1955 Chelyabinsk reached the fourth place for the first time (back then a medal table still was dominated by the Moscow teams).^{[citation needed]}

In 1965 - 1968, Traktor played in the second division of the Soviet hockey championships. The team returned to the first division in 1968.^{[citation needed]} In 1973, Traktor played in the USSR Cup finals against the CSKA. Although Traktor led 2-0, they lost the game with a score of 2-5.^{[citation needed]} In the 1976-77 season Traktor won bronze in the Soviet hockey championships, the team's highest achievement during the Soviet period of its history.^{[citation needed]}

At that time, Traktor produced several players who achieved international prominence. One of the best Soviet forwards of all times, Sergei Makarov, was born in Chelyabinsk and began his career in Traktor. Along his teammate, defenseman Sergei Starikov, he regularly played on the Soviet national team from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Starikov and Makarov each won over 10 international tournaments with Team USSR.^{[citation needed]}

In the early 1990s, Traktor twice finished third in the International Hockey League under head coach Valery Belousov. A group of Traktor players, including Sergei Gomolyako, Valeri Karpov, Igor Varitsky, Ravil Gusmanov and others, appeared on Team Russia at several world championships.

During the late 1990s ice hockey in Chelyabinsk entered a period of decline. In 1998 Traktor was relegated to the Vysshaya Liga and was replaced in its role as the major hockey team of Chelyabinsk by Mechel. The team found its way back to the elite only in 2006. Coached by Gennady Tsygurov they won the second division championship earning promotion to the Russian Superleague.

After the 2006-07 season, Tsygurov resigned. He was replaced by Andrei Nazarov, a native of Chelyabinsk who had spent 13 seasons in the NHL as an enforcer. Although he succeeded at securing Traktor's place in the top league, Nazarov's coaching style led Traktor to a new world record in overall penalty minutes in a single game that was set after the mass brawl versus Ak Bars Kazan in January 2008.

During 2008–09 KHL season Traktor was reinforced by its alumni Ravil Gusmanov and NHL star Oleg Kvasha. Despite a good start Chelyabinsk finished the regular season with disappointing results and eventually failed to advance in the playoffs further than the first round losing the series to Atlant Moscow Oblast with an overall score 13-2. Kvasha was named the team's MVP of the season. 2009 was also notable for the club's move to the Arena Traktor. The first game in the new arena, played against Metallurg Magnitogorsk, was won by 3-2. The first player to score a goal was defenceman Andre Lakos.

Before the 2009–10 season the team had to face budget cuts and lose its biggest stars including Oleg Kvasha and Evgenii Dadonov. After an unstable performance in the regular season the team advanced to the playoffs with the lowest seed ultimately losing to its natural rival Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the first round.

During the 2010 off-season Nazarov left to coach infamous Vityaz Chekhov and was replaced by Andrei Sidorenko who was fired off his job right after the disastrous start of the season. In October 2010 Valery Belousov returned as Traktor's head coach, but, nonetheless, during the 2010–11 the team failed to make the playoffs.

After the lackluster season the team finally fixing its financial issues seriously rearranged the roster with future stars such as Vladimir Antipov, Stanislav Chistov, Jan Bulis, Petri Kontiola and goaltender Michael Garnett. The results were immediate, Traktor became the best team of the 2011–12 regular season winning Continental Cup and taking bronze medals after losing to Avangard Omsk in Eastern Conference Finals. The biggest breakthrough of the season was a young winger Evgeny Kuznetsov who led the team in points. Another homegrown Chelyabinsk player, Konstantin Panov, who returned to Traktor after five seasons of absence, became the team's goal scoring leader.

Traktor kept all of its leaders for the 2012–13 season. Unlike many other clubs in the league Chelyabinsk did not sign any NHL players who were returning to Europe during the NHL lockout. Facing much stronger competition this time Traktor finished the regular season in the third place of the Eastern Conference. Kuznetsov continued his successful career leading the team in points, goals and assists. 17 years old forward Valeri Nichushkin became that season's major breakthrough for Chelyabinsk, later in 2013 he won the Cherepanov Trophy as the KHL's Rookie of the Year and was picked in the top 10 of the NHL Entry Draft by the Dallas Stars.

On its way to the Gagarin Cup Finals Traktor had to endure three seven game series against Barys Astana, Avangard Omsk and Ak Bars Kazan, all three of those rounds were won back by the team from the position of 3-1 down in the series. One of the main components of the success was goaltender Michael Garnett who had 5 shutouts during the post-season and GAA of 1.86. However, the team was less fortunate in the final games played versus the defending champions Dynamo Moscow. Failing to take the lead in the series Traktor ultimately lost it 4-2.

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTW = Overtime/shootout wins, OTL = Overtime/shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

No.	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
81		Artyom Blazhiyevsky	D	L	30	2021	Moscow, Russia
85		Semyon Der-Arguchintsev	C	R	24	2023	Moscow, Russia
98		Grigori Dronov	D	L	26	2023	Magnitogorsk, Russia
30		Zach Fucale	G	L	29	2023	Laval, Quebec, Canada
82		Marsel Ibragimov	D	R	27	2024	Kazan, Russia
78		Alexander Kadeikin	C	L	31	2024	Elektrostal, Russia
51		Steven Kampfer	D	R	36	2024	Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
89		Ilya Karpukhin	D	L	26	2018	Chelyabinsk, Russia
53		Mikhail Kotlyarevsky	LW	R	27	2022	Chita, Russia
74		Vitali Kravtsov	RW	L	24	2023	Vladivostok, Russia
20		Sergei Mylnikov	G	L	25	2020	Chelyabinsk, Russia
44		Ilya Nikolayev	D	L	23	2023	Chelyabinsk, Russia
11		Egor Popov	C	L	27	2023	Tyumen, Russia
10		Buddy Robinson	RW	R	33	2023	Bellmawr, New Jersey, United States
12		Alexander Rykov	RW	L	19	2022	Magnitogorsk, Russia
49		Maxim Shabanov	F	L	24	2021	Chelyabinsk, Russia
24		Alexander Sharov	C	L	29	2023	Chelyabinsk, Russia
94		Artyom Shchuchinov	D	L	19	2022	Nizhny Tagil, Russia
77		Artyom Shvaryov	F	L	23	2020	Chelyabinsk, Russia
19		Dylan Sikura	LW	L	29	2024	Aurora, Ontario, Canada
87		Andrei Svetlakov	C	L	28	2024	Moscow, Russia
72		Sergei Telegin	D	L	24	2020	Chelyabinsk, Russia
88		Nikita Tertyshny	F	R	26	2021	Chelyabinsk, Russia
55		Vladimir Tkachyov (A)	F	R	31	2021	Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
50		Danil Yurtaikin	LW	R	27	2023	Belovo, Russia
25		Vladimir Zharkov (A)	RW	L	36	2023	Pavlovskiy Posad, Russian SFSR

Traktor Chelyabinsk hangs on the rafters of the Traktor Arena jerseys of all the Traktor players who have ever won the World Championship title, including the players who are currently active.

These are the top-ten point-scorers in franchise history. Figures are updated after each completed KHL regular season.^[3]

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; P/G = Points per game   = current Traktor player

Points Player Pos GP G A Pts P/G Anton Glinkin LW 503 72 141 213 0.42 Andrei Popov RW 458 89 80 169 0.37 Nick Bailen D 254 48 108 156 0.61 Evgeny Kuznetsov C 210 65 81 146 0.70 Maxim Yakutsenya RW 276 56 82 138 0.50 Lukáš Sedlák C 164 57 64 121 0.74 Tomáš Hyka RW 145 42 76 118 0.81 Deron Quint D 264 50 63 113 0.43 Vladimir Tkachyov C 175 37 74 111 0.63 Stanislav Chistov LW 255 45 62 107 0.42

Goals Player Pos G Andrei Popov RW 89 Anton Glinkin LW 72 Evgeny Kuznetsov C 65 Lukáš Sedlák C 57 Maxim Yakutsenya RW 56 Vitali Kravtsov RW 54 Deron Quint D 50 Nick Bailen D 48 Vyacheslav Osnovin C 48 Anton Burdasov RW 47

Assists Player Pos A Anton Glinkin LW 141 Nick Bailen D 108 Maxim Yakutsenya RW 82 Evgeny Kuznetsov C 81 Andrei Popov RW 80 Tomáš Hyka RW 76 Vladimir Tkachyov C 74 Lukáš Sedlák C 64 Petri Kontiola C 63 Deron Quint D 63

KHL Continental Cup (1): 2012
Vysshaya Liga Championship (1): 2006

Gagarin Cup (1): 2013
Gagarin Cup (3): 2012, 2018, 2022
USSR Cup (1): 1973
Soviet League Championship: 1977
IHL Championship (2): 1993, 1994
Spengler Cup (1): 1973

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